Cake, the coyote that came awake during handlingOnce we have finally captured a coyote, we bring our coyotes to veterinary hospitals in order to sedate (typically we use Telazol) and radio-collar our animals. A big thanks goes to Dr. Larry Venezia and his staff at the Hyannis Animal Hosptial on Cape Cod for literally donating thousands of dollars to our study. Additionally, a big thanks goes to Dr. Bob Binder and his staff at the Saugus Animal Hospital for doing likewise in Boston.
Cake, the coyote that came awake during handling
Glope (#0001), a 45 pound adult male when collared, was hit and killed by a
car in August 2001. He weighed a mighty 49 pounds when recovered and was thought
to be attending 2 litters of pups that summer!
We measure canine teeth and assess tooth wear to approximate an animal's age.
Without doubt the most important thing that we do is attach a radio-collar.
We make sure it is snug (typically we can barely put 3 fingers between the animal
and the collar) but not that tight.
A first class coyote procedure where the animal is weighed, measured and radio-collared
on a digital, moveable scale.
After being radio-collared we typically take pictures of the coyotes then put
them back into box traps and do not release them until >6 hours later. Because
of the urbanized nature of our study areas we want to make sure that the coyotes
are fully alert when released.
Two of my buddies from the Bronx, N.Y.(I worked at the Bronx
Zoo for 7 months from June 2000 - January 2001). Rual (left) and John-Marc
(right) with Sog, the coyote that successfully crossed the canal (probably swam
but possibly crossed the bridge) then was hit by a car 2 miles north of the
Bourne Bridge on route 24. This picture is of Sog beginning to recover from
the sedation - she already has the radio-collar attached.
Continue on with releasing coyotes after being radio-collared
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